CAMAS — The Port of Camas-Washougal extended its partnership with American Cruise Lines despite concerns about the cruise line’s economic benefits and commitment to sustainability.
On July 17, port commissioners approved a docking agreement with American for 2025 and 2026, just three months after green-lighting a similar one-year contract to bring the Connecticut-based cruise line to the Washougal waterfront for the 2024 summer season.
The new contract calls for American to dock at the port approximately 90 times per year, matching its current schedule. The cruise line will pay the port a docking fee of $2.75 per linear foot per vessel per stop, a 25 cent increase from 2024.
The agreement is expected to generate about $140,000 for the port, according to a staff report.
“(The rate) went up 10 percent, and that puts us pretty high on the Columbia River in terms of rates,” Port Business Development Director Derek Jaeger said during the meeting. “But they’re agreeable to that.”
“It’s not ‘big’ money,” Port of Camas-Washougal Commissioner Cassi Marshall said, “but it’s money.”
The port hastily completed a docking agreement with American Cruise Lines after American Queen Voyages, the cruise line that used the port’s breakwater dock twice per week in the summers of 2022 and 2023, declared bankruptcy in February.
“AQV oversold in terms of what their impact would be to the community,” Jaeger told port commissioners.
The port’s 2024 agreement with American Cruise Lines called for five vessels, ranging in size between 220 and 328 feet and holding between 125 and 200 passengers, to make 89 stops at the port’s breakwater dock between March 31 and Nov. 8.
It did not provide tourists opportunities to visit downtown Washougal or downtown Camas, however.
“I struggle with giving them all that space with very little impact to our community,” Port Commissioner John Spencer said earlier this month. “Right now, I’m not really sure what it’s doing for us. We’re getting a better lease rate this time, which is great.”
Marshall said she would like to see tourist dollars coming into Camas and Washougal from the cruise ships.
Brad Richardson, executive director of the Clark County Historical Museum, told port leaders he would like to explore the idea of offering a guided tour bus to cruise line tourists.
“We could potentially put together a proposal to reach out to the city of Camas and the city of Washougal for lodging tax funds next year to do a shopping-and-sightseeing shuttle,” Richardson said. “Visiting Two Rivers, shopping at Pendleton, getting coffee in downtown Washougal, the new restaurants, going to downtown Camas for shopping — there’s lots of opportunity for a modest shuttle.”
Sustainability questions
The commissioners questioned American Cruise Lines’ sustainability efforts after receiving complaints from Parker’s Landing Marina tenants about fumes from the cruise line’s vessels.
“The diesel generators that run on those, the exhaust, is horrible,” Camas resident and marina tenant Dan Liehr told the commission in June. “American Harmony is the worst. You could look at the back of the boat and it’s all black, and I know some of that is from the motors that are running. But when they’re sitting there idling or just docked and running the generator, the exhaust coming off of it is (bad).”
Spencer called Liehr’s comments concerning.
“That’s a big concern. It’s a health concern,” Marshall added.
Port CEO David Ripp said he went to the marina in mid-June to investigate Liehr’s claims.
“I ran down to the dock, and the generator was on, and the only time (the fumes) hit me is when I ran by the exhaust pipe,” Ripp said. “I can’t remember if the wind was blowing that day, but I went by it and I smelled it, but it was just like a wall, and I got through it, and I was fine..”
Jaeger said the fumes are “noticeable when the vessel is under power and pushing away from the dock, primarily under situations when the weather’s pretty stagnant and there’s not a lot of wind.”
“But we brought that to ACL’s attention, and they are willing … to fix that going forward,” he said. “ACL is going to look at how they can minimize that impact.”
Jaeger said the cruise line is involved with the Port of Seattle’s Pacific Northwest to Alaska Green Corridor, a partnership among cruise lines, homeports and ports of call exploring ways to lower greenhouse-gas emissions from cruise lines operating in Washington, British Columbia and Alaska.
“I think they understand they have to evolve with where the industry is going; otherwise, they’re just not going to be competing,” Jaeger said.
The new docking agreement says American Cruise Lines “shall not release any hazardous substance into the surface, subsurface, water or air on or about the dock or facility or the common areas or adjacent property, including bus staging area.”
The port can terminate the new agreement “at any time.”
